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Awareness Campaigns

As part of its mission to eradicate discrimination in the District of Columbia, the Office of Human Rights has launched numerous awareness campaigns aimed at preventing discrimination and encouraging people to report discrimination when it happens. Below are the most recent campaigns.

DC Websites Speak Your Language

In September 2014, OHR announced the completion of a yearlong initiative to provide critical service information in multiple languages on over 30 District government agency websites. Individuals who speak Amharic, Chinese, French, Korean, Spanish or Vietnamese are now able to access a description of core services using an in-language hyperlink featured near the bottom of each agency homepage. To promote awareness of the language-specific pages, OHR has placed advertisements in local ethnic media outlets and alerted community partners who serve limited and non-English proficient residents. See the campaign ads.

AccessibleDC

In April 2014, we launched a year-long effort to encourage businesses to become more accessibility friendly. "Serving All: A Guide to Being Accessible for Your Customers and Community," is a guidebook that assists owners and managers improve accessibility in their restaurant, both for the benefit of the community and the restaurant's bottom line. Throughout the year, OHR staff will visit developing restaurant corridors to talk with restaurants and ask them to "Take a Pledge" to become more accessibility friendly. Read the guidebook and learn more about the campaign.

Safe Bathrooms DC

Public bathrooms are never enjoyable, but for transgender people and many others, using a public bathroom can be a highly stressful and even dangerous experience. The Safe Bathrooms DC campaign, launched in April 2014, aims to change that by making every single-stall public bathroom in the District gender-neutral. It’s the law, but currently many businesses are unaware of the requirement, and OHR is asking for the community's help to let them know. If you see a public bathroom with one stall that is not gender-neutral, just tweet us the business name and location using #safebathroomsDC, or fill out our five question form. Learn more and see the campaign ads.

Immigrants Contribute: Fall 2013

Our Immigrants Contribute Campaign, launched in September 2013, aims to highlight the contributions of immigrants to the District and discourage incidents of discrimination. Developed over five months and with extensive guidance from immigrant advocates and diverse immigrant communities, the campaign will appeared in Metro stations, throughout the bus system and in newspapers and on radio during September. See the campaign.

Transgender and Gender Identity Respect Campaign: Fall & Winter 2012

The groundbreaking Transgender and Gender Identity Respect Campaign has been called by advocates the first government-funded campaign focused exclusively on the betterment of transgender and gender non-conforming people. The campaign aims to increase understanding and respect for the transgender and gender non-conforming communities, decrease incidents of discrimination and increase reporting of discrimination to OHR. The five campaign ads feature actual community members, and will appear citywide on bus shelters in the fall and winter of 2012. Learn more about the campaign and the transgender and gender non-conforming communities in the District.

Ashley

Consuella

Iden

Kisha

Wesley

Know Your Rights "I Speak" Campaign: Summer 2012

The 2012 Know Your Rights campaign aims to educate limited and non-English proficient DC residents about interpretation services that must be made available to them at government agencies if they speak Amharic, Chinese, French, Korean, Spanish or Vietnamese. The seven public service announcements and six print advertisements released with the Know Your Rights campaign acknowledge the difficulty of being limited or non-English proficient, but that "I Speak" cards provided by the DC Office of Human Rights can make access to government services easier. View all the public service annoucements and download an "I Speak" card on the Know Your Rights campaign page.

Spanish

Chinese (Mandarin)

Fair Housing Is Your Right Campaign: Summer 2012

The Office of Human Rights launched an ambitious advertising campaign in Summer 2012 aimed at educating DC residents about anti-discrimination laws in housing, in hopes of reducing discriminatory incidents and increasing reporting. The advertisements focused on five of the DC Human Rights Act's 19 protected traits: people with disabilities, sexual orientation, gender identity, source of income (such as the use of housing vouchers) and familial status (such as people with children). Learn more about the campaign, download a Fair Housing flyer and learn more about housing non-discrimination on our Fair Housing resources page.